Idol Worship?

Idol worship is a blind worship, whereby people feed physical milk and food to stones and statues treating them as the God, believing their prayers will come true if it is given physical offerings, holy baths etc

Interestingly, I see nothing wrong in giving milk to an idol to celebrate life or Creation and for no other purpose than such, the word ritual seeps in only if people truly believe their personal prayers for their own purpose will come true.

I do not see any difference in giving a statue milk, and visualising Krishna whilst doing so, and offering devotion and faith (provided no personal gain is asked for), to the situation where my father thinks of Guru Nanak Ji to focus on Waheguru, it is the same path, provided the spirit in which it is done is pure and assists in your focus of Creator.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/hinduism/37784-idol-worship.html
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=37784

I am not suggesting that we begin feeding milk to statues, but understanding is needed as to why people would do this, and understanding is needed to show it can be consistent with what some of us already do.

 
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Forgive my bluntness , I wish to put in very clear cut words . Idol worship is bad because no Devi Devta was ever born or existed . The Devi devtas are creations of Brahmins who wrote Puranic mythological tales just to perpetuate human worship ( their own self worship ) , expeeded by the later generations of Brahmins . The modus operandi was like this the Brahmin used to propagate certain Devi Devta for fulfillment of CERTAIN WISH ( MAN MAANGI MURAAD) , the type of offering , the method ( Karam Kaand ) of worship . In the evening the same offering was gobbled by the very Brahmin , the self-made custodian of 330 million Devi devtas . This used to be practice till the Brahmin was alive , after his death his idol or picture took the form of Devi Devta (by his son ) , many times it was the king , queen or even princesses whose idol was placed before the devotee by the Brahmin . So an idol worship is infact nothing but self ( Human ) worship . Guru Nanak Dev ji got humanity out of this rut of human ( body ) worship by exposing this world to the concept of SHABADGURU ( WORD as teacher) following which we can achieve oneness with FORMLESS GOD whose qualities are described in MOOLMANTAR as " There is One Universal God ( for whole humanity ) whose name is truth ( He Does exist ) , Who is the Creator , Sustainer as well as the Destroyer ( Karta Purakh ) ,Sans Fear , Sans Hatred , Beyond the Realm of time ( does not grow old ), Does not Take birth or dies , Is Self Illuminated , Is achieved by the Grace of true Guru ( Shabad Guru/Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji )"

Dalbirkji,
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=37784

I think we first need to evaluate what exactly idol worship is, is praying to a photo of Guru Nanakji idol worship? Is thinking of Guru Nanakji whilst praying idol worship? Is bowing down before the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji in the hope that your humility is recognised by Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji idol worship?
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=37784

Please define idol worship

Uhh devis and devtas are real, they always talk about it in the Ravidas time, when Ganga DEVI came out of the water and gave him a kangan.

Lady of the Lake also gave a sword to King Arthur....which was also in the stone...and of course Merlin was also real...they always talked about it in the Harry Potter series of "granths"......its ALL REAL....I have seen the Loch ness monster (devta) myself....its His YEAR..2012 !! Hes REAL too..becasue hes making the rounds of Malaysian Chinese houses with drums rolling...all real..i know...

There is no idol worship in Vedas, so where these practices came fromis later by a number of priests.

One supreme being:
http://agniveer.com/2708/vedic-god/

and as to 33 million well:

Correct, I agree. It is the incorporation of rituals and beliefs from priests along the years that influence and portray a misleading image to nearly every religion in the world.
This is where problems arise and misunderstandings.

but what I am saying is what it in our religion, as in the guru quoting it.

Gurfateh everyone!

I'm going to address ritualistic practices and hopefully it can generate some hypotheses as to what consists of idol worship and what does not. I am of the belief that ritualistic behaviour is closely related to idol worship. It is a ritualistic if you do Math Tek to the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and do not know why, it is a ritual if you do Nitnem everyday and do not know why. I think idol worship of the conventional sense of praying to a statue and leaving food for it, and as a result expecting some sort of a boon is not directly proportional to Sikhi however the same idea can be applied. I personally think we should be more worried about ritualistic practices because we are doing these subconsciously without knowledge and more often. This is because before you do Matha Tek I imagine some of us do a tiny Ardaas (New car, More money, Scolarship or something like Nimrata Baksho, Naam Dan Baksho, Garibi Hirade vich Basao) and are doing Matha Tek without knowing why just because you think it will help the cause of the Ardaas then it is definitely ritualistic and also idol worship, not because the Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji is an idol but because this person is only behaving in a manner that would suggest it is an idol.
I think bowing to a picture of a Guru is also a ritual/idol worship because it doesn't really join you to God or bring you closer to Akal Purakh, it's an empty practice. I used to bow to a picture of Guru Gobing Singh because I didn't have any Gutkes in my room after I finished doing Ardaas however it was easily changed when I realized all I have to do is go downstairs and do Ardaas where the Gutkes are kept so at least I'm not following an empty practice and am actually bowing down to Baani. If I bowed down to the Gutkes just because and not because I recognize the Guru as Baani, then this too would've been a ritual/idol worship. So think of it this way if what you are doing is based on either blind faith or is an empty practice performed done in the hope of being recompensated by the Guru then yes it is idol worship. Here's a story from Manvir Singh where he explains rituals, it starts at 8:30 and continues on to part 3.
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=37784
This one starts at 8:30
Continues on here:
Reference:: Sikh Philosophy Network http://www.sikhphilosophy.net/showthread.php?t=37784

Hope this provides some positive input towards the discussion,
Sukrit Kaur